Running into Complications
by Katseye7-1
Summary: Sasuke just finds out his rival is a girl and realizes just how hard her life is. All three become good friends and will do anything to protect each other.
1. Chapter 1

After reading, PLEASE leave comments bellow. I would really appreciate it. Thanks and enjoy!

It had been the third year of that academy and Naruto was tired of it, she was not going through all of it again, that hatred for her, it wasn't worth it, just to get the right group, one that would accept her but..

'Then again Sakura was graduating, and this year I actually made some friends. I mean sure a lot of kids still beat me up after school and the ANUB weren't pulling any punches, but this year was better. A lot better! Maybe this year would be different and maybe I could make it through.' "Ugh!" 'I just don't know! ... Well, I guess I have to honor my word, I mean I DID tell Jiji I would be the Hokage and I hate lying. Well then that settles it there's ..' There was a rustle in the woods, it came from the trees. No doubt about it, a person was close, no animals that came this far into the woods made noises, well not that loud anyway. Naruto got up and shouted.

"One more steps and you set off the trap, don't believe me, try it, and yes all of you, and no, they didn't take me serious last time. See where that got that them!"

There were three ninjas in the woods surrounding her. She was in a large open patch of very green grass with a few flowers here and there. The sky was clear and sunny, but midday created shadows in the trees resulting in the open plain being the only lit patch of ground. The birds were singing, the crickets were chirping, there was a small breeze that made the heat of the sun stay just right, and the smell of leaves in the air. If you were quiet you could hear the rushing sound of the waterfall in the background.

This was a place where only a few people knew about and could appreciate well enough to risk getting past the jutsu. There was a lagoon and several traps set that were not worth setting off, not unless a prize lay at the other end. The only way to get through was by way of someone else, a byakugan, something to see the unseen, a map, or in Naruto's case an uncanny sense of smell and you had to know about it and want to go.

The leader took Naruto's word for it and stepped back, then he landed right in front of her staring down at the little child. Naruto stood her ground, but took a defensive stance, she hadn't expected him to come out in front of her and definitely not this close either. She was a little freaked, but nonetheless she slowly looked up and got a good look, but she froze in fear when she saw who it was.

* * *

now I know my a b c's next time won't you sing with me?

* * *

Sasuke had just found out that the boy he had been a rival with for as long as he could remember ' was was a-a g-girl? I can't believe it, he-she was nothing like a g-girl this isn't right there is no way that he's a girl they don't talk about weapons and dreams and fighting and food all the time, paint the Hokage mount in one day, steal something from every home then switch them all up so it takes seven days to sort it all out even with jutsu, smoke the entire ANUB H.Q., set the academy on fire to get out of class, get into a fist fight with Kiba after making a bet that whoever got into the least amount of trouble won and got to pull a prank on the other, loose and still pull a prank on Kiba. There isn't a girl alive that is that stupid, smart, interesting and fun to be with, I mean that's just not, it's just not normal right?.'

Sasuke was on the roof of his apartment when Sakura walked by. She had strawberry hair with rich green eyes she had a normal walk but if you paid close enough attention it was actually a forced walk, to keep a slow normal pass. She had on a traditional clan dress red with a white trim and a circle in the middle and tight black shorts with a holster on her leg and a weapons pouch on her backside. She was the only other person that knew that Naruto was a girl. It was strange, when she was around the villagers she seemed to be well, the most violent and aggressive in the whole group of the fan girls, but when you find her alone she's really nice and calm, and well normal like she has two personalities. Sasuke stood up and hollered to Sakura with a wave. She looked up and saw him too, and waved back. Sasuke jumped down and walked beside her.

"So, what are you going to do, you know about Naruto and all?"

Sakura had known long before Sasuke that Naruto was a girl and now she was concerned that he might tell everyone because Naruto promised if he did she would reveal herself, this did not go well with Sakura because that would make things harder for Naruto and ever since Sakura found out she was like a big sister to her but, she wasn't allowed to be near her, so it made it harder but Naruto understood and now so did Sasuke.

It was a beautiful sunny day and Sasuke walked a little with Sakura, looked up and met her glowing, green eyes that almost made him cry, and taking a second, he got his thought back and said.

"I've thought about the offer that Naruto made and I have come to a decision."

Sakura became very alert and attentive with hope gleaming in her eyes. Even if Sasuke had chosen to tell everyone he would have declined, she looked so cute, there was no way he could disappoint her with those eyes. Sasuke effectively hid his blush and said.'

"I-I won't tell anyone his secret..."

before he could explain Sakura's arms were wrapped around him in a light huge. Sasuke was about to pull away but then he relaxed and waited for Sakura to let go. After a few moments, she did, then looked at him with a smile scratched her head and said.

"Sorry but, thank you, you have no idea what this means to me!This is so good let's go tell him right now!Come on!"

She smiled brighter and there was almost a beam of light on her, she looks so happy. In fact, Sasuke forgot, for a minute, who he was dealing with, she might be nice, but if you fall in love with her your skull gets smashed in. This never actually happen, but it was common knowledge. Then something else came to mind.

"Do you even know where he is?"

Sakura froze she hadn't thought of that. Already several passes ahead of Sasuke with her arms up in excitement, she slowly put them down, turned to Sasuke, and replied with a rather odd face.

"Hehe, no, I guess I don't." giving a sheepish smiled.

At that moment, he remembered how incredibly ditzy she often acted. She slipped her hand up to her chin and thought out loud.

"Well, lets see today is sunny but there are no clouds so he's not with Sikamaru and Choji, and he managed to stay out of trouble, so he's not with Iruka Sensei and the Hokage is doing work outside the village, so that rules him out, and I just passed his apartment... Then he's either training or, in Freshutta, as he calls it." Turning to look Sasuke in the eye she demanded: "Did we work on any chakra training recently?"

He was surprised that she asked him, then remembered that it was a question cooly replied.

"No, not that I can remember."

Sakura made a small smiled and nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay then off to Freshutta it is let's go!"

Sakura raised her hand in a fist and started walking, again. Sasuke expelled a small amount of air posing as a laugh, hardly believing that she not only looked ridiculous but was headed in the wrong direction. Catching her attention with his exclamation, she turned around and gave him the 'What's so funny?' look. turning to point but not leaving her eyes, Sasuke explained

"It's the other way, and put your fist down you look like a baka."

Sakura froze, then slowly lowered her arm and turned fully around with a puckered up face mumbling a few words, but, fortunately, walked in the right direction. 'Sakura is usually very good with directions… maybe it's part of her personality when she's alone. Still she's acting even weirder than usual.' Sasuke dismissed the idea for the present.

It took a while getting to Freshutta and avoiding all the traps. Naruto created a map for Sakura to follow, so in case of an emergency, she would have easy access to the falls. Although, she memorized the map within days and visited quite frequently, so it became a more casual rendezvous for them instead. Finally, they arrived, although, what they saw was not at all what they had expected.

Again PLEASE leave comments bellow.

Disclaimer: I own none of the content in any of the chapters.


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura and Sasuke looked five feet in front of them and saw a splatter of blood. Her face turned white and her eyes grew wide as her pupils dilated. In an instant, she drew her kuni and some bottle from her holster. Rushing forward, she opened the bottle and poured a drop of its contents on the blood. Clearly, she made some conclusion from it, because she immediately turned saying

"Sasuke stay there, and if anyone comes near here, throw this at the ground."

She threw another bottle at Sasuke and disappeared before he caught it. Utterly confused he stood waiting for her, or someone to come back. Hearing a loud cry, he looked in its direction, 'was that Sakura… no' He heard it again and suddenly realized 'That must have been Naruto!' Torn between obedience and a natural instinct to join danger, Sasuke slowly stepped forwards, then a flash erupted and he glimpsed a figure, briefly, passing in the trees. It was Sakura. Now, realizing if he could help, she would have asked for it, Sasuke pulled back, but never tore his eyes from the scene in case something changed.

* * *

now I know my a b c's next time won't you sing with me?

* * *

There he stood. It explained how he got so close without detection. Hyō stepped forwards and with the exact pace and timing Naruto stepped back.

"hmmf. You're mighty perceptive."

Confused with the calm demeanor, Naruto slid back even more and retorted, with her usual cockiness.

"Nop, you're just careless making that much noise in the trees and smelling of corruption."

Shocked that she actually heard and smelt him rather than just getting a lucky guess, he pulls back, to signal to the other, coming out made no difference. Naruto pulled back again and lowered her stance creating compression to spring with. Unfortunately, they were fast. the first blow came from behind and she tumbled forwards. Rolling to the ground, she used the momentum to head for the woods. With such an easy escape they either wanted a chase or didn't have much time left. Usually, the first case was the cause, and that was it this time too. As she ran they caught up and flanked her on all three sides only leaving the front clear. She approached a trap and slowed down, then she dropped to the ground pulled an 180 and darted the other way. The trap sounded but she had no way to know for sure if it caught a victim. She'd find out soon enough, though. Hyō had flanked to the left and shortly realizing the kid was a clone he signaled for the others to stop but it was too late. One of his comrades was already hanging upside down with paint dripping from his robe, and then a kuni flew through the air and pierced the rope. Hanging by a thread he growled, letting Naruto know her trap worked. Then the twang came. The ANBU fell onto the ground covered with mushroom puffs, sending their offspring into the air and covering the victim with seeds, and left him to cough and gag. Upon hearing the low snarl from her opponent Naruto could hardly suppress her smile. By this time she usually would have lost their trail and wasted enough time, her pursuers would give up and return to their duties, but not this time. The kuni came shredding through the air like a bullet, piercing through her left shoulder. Prepared for any attack, she continued onward without even a stagger. Flying through the air she tried to gain the high ground, but Hyō beat her to it. He looked at her through his mask, and without seeing his face, Naruto could feel the anger rising. Realizing the same trick wouldn't work twice, she simply continued forwards and avoided all the traps. Hyō had the advantage in every way and planned to keep it that way. He fell back to avoid detection by the nine tailed carrier and proceeded to throw kuni, till satisfied with his incapacity to fight back. Although Naruto left the kuni already wedged in her shoulder alone, she felt nine tails slowly push it out.

Closing her eye she tried to plead with him to leave it in, but she only received a cold and fierce glare, telling her 'not a chance you little brat.'. She needed the kuni to stay in, because if they realized she healed quickly, then they would beat her within an inch of her life, then instead of healing her, nine tails would let her die, and be free. Although she had no real foundation for her belief, that was the best she could come up with, so every time he healed her, she ask him to stop, and each time he persisted to the contrary.

At that instant, another kuni flew towards her, and this time, she dodged it, only to be hit by another coming from the other direction. The second shot into her leg slowing her down, but not preventing her from maintaining a high speed. By this time she neared another trap and barely missing it she allowed no insight to its presence. Then the other fool companion, unable to detect the trap before Hyō could warn him tripped, falling over the wire. he spun around, just as designed, and soon was surrounded by paper bomb explosions. Naruto could only take partial claim of this trap.

Indeed, this one existed long before her knowledge of trap setting. Although, this was aimed at death and a rather quick one. After watching Sensei show the students how a paper bomb worked, she stuck around after class to watch him remove the paper bombs. Pretending to do the same she gave Iruka such a fright, he just decided to show her how to remove it properly. After that, she used the paper bombs she 'borrowed' from the school to practice with. A few weeks of smoke bombs igniting in her face, she mastered the technique. Then, she set one of the real paper bombs off while in the woods, calculated the radius of the explosion, determined what the writing would tell her, and set to work. In the event of an accident Naruto when through all the traps and reset all the paper bombs just far enough apart to prevent any serious injuries to the unfortunate party who happens upon the trap. Although, as a consequence of stupidity she added a little something extra as compensation.

Striding past the explosion, she could hear the voice of utter protest as the ANBU tried to escape the pit of trees sap the explosions shot him into. Then a shower of colorful and brittle pine cones fell from the trees covering the already furious pray.

After years of running and hiding Naruto realized as long she breathed someone would want her punished, punished for the destruction caused by the monster she restrained within her. Struggling to understand why they would attack her, she tried to talk with the nine tails. He flared up in fury at her mere attempt to even enter the same plane of his existence, but with no one else to talk to, and nothing else to do she tried and tried and tired. Eventually, she could get vague ideas about what he might be thinking. Then, one day, he repressed his wrath and let her in. Shaking in fear she would not look at him, but managed to convey her question "Are we the same?". The nine tails burst with a hideous laughter and reignited his anger. She left huddled in fear, but with answer enough. They were different, how different she did not know and at that point, did not particularly care. Now she had a choice. She remembered what Jiji said to the class one day "You can hate them, with the same hatred they show you and expect from you… or you can overcome your fears and anger with the love that overflows within you." Even though still quite young, she realized if she and the nine tails were different, then she must be better than he was bad, or else how could she hold such a scary creature. Not quite understanding how the seal worked, she determined, she must be as kind to all as they were cruel. Unfortunately, kindness seemed to include pranks. This notion came from the nine tails, the only being which she dared never prank. Oddly enough, she would talk to him, telling him of her resolutions and what her day was like where she went and what the world was like. Still not fully grasping the concept of the seal she supposed he did not have eyes to see the world with, so before bed she would tell him stories because he could hear her, that was certain. Although, that tended to result in her attempts to make him laugh and the only thing which stirred him even slightly was her pitiful description of pranks, so it became her passion. See, if he thought pranks were interesting, then maybe she could brighten his day with better and better escapades each day. Consequently, she strived to prank as often as possible, but she had to keep it friendly or else he might start to win, but friendly was a VERY relative term in her vocabulary.

By this time she was getting weak and running more painful with each new attack. She struggled on until she returned to the clearing. There she stopped. Standing up as tall and confidently as she could, she waited for her attacker to arrive, which was less than a second. He approached her slowly, taking a good look at her through his mask, he determined her wounded enough. He pulled his feet apart and raise his fists. When Naruto stood firm giving no impression for a desire to fight he asked:

"Are you ready for the real fight?"

Panting she slid back into her original defensive stance but gave no other sign indicating her preparation to fight. He relaxed, slowly and cockily walked forwards, and then it came, so fast she barely moved when his foot swung towards her body and smashed into the kuni forcing it to protrude all the way through her shoulder. naruto tumbled to the ground and rolled over springing back to her feet. She did not complain about the wound but quickly realized this was getting too dangerous, and intended to move a little quicker for the proceeding attacks. Another blow aimed at her leg came but not fast enough. She dodged and got away with a small clip of his foot. She stumbled forwards a little but didn't fall. Then infuriated Hyō growled

"Why you little...!"

He pulled his arm back and began performing a jutsu. She could hardly believe it, they never tried using jutsu, mostly because they knew if she died then old nine tails would be free. Naruto, froze with fear, and just stared at the ball of light. It burnt up the chakra all around them and then when he finished its creation aimed and fired. Naruto took a stance to dodge it but out of fear or maybe internal preservation she didn't move an inch as it whizzed past her, tearing into her arm but missing the mass of her body. Then realizing his exhaustion and her lack of imminent death she pulled the kuni from my leg and slipped off with all her speed, not caring about blood lost. She glanced at her arm prepared for the worst but to her utter astonishment, just a small burn not even touching muscle or bone. Relieved and assuming that must have been the end of the attack, she slowed enough to bandage her leg and arms. Then double checking, she turned to see if he followed and just by chance saw him plunging down with a tantō. At this point, there was no point in letting him land blows if anything that made it worse. 'Not that I could dodge them that well in the first place.'

Missing he retiring the tantō and reared up for another justu. This was a first, there was something wrong with him, more than what she usually dealt with. There was something beyond revenge, no it was pure hate, almost that of nine tails. Naruto did not have enough experience to discover what it was, but she had to find out, so she turned and ran. The justu missed by a long shot as she used a speed justu of her own to darted away. She began creating clones, sending them all off in other directions. At this point, what was behind her, lost all the humanity it had left. After sending all her clone to the left or right of her, she finally turned and created one to run forward. Then, expounding all the now useless clones she managed to create a clone which appeared to come from the decoy clone, and left without detection.

She ran towards the village to inform Jiji about the crazy ANBU when she saw Sakura in the trees. Quickly she changed her disguise justu so Sakura could not see the wounds and met with her. Still out of breath, she continued moving to the village as she explained the situation. Sakura quickly understanding and knew of situations like this, so she insisted they stop to grab Sasuke. No longer surprised by anything and having full faith in Sakura, Naruto agreed and they headed to the clearing.

* * *

Now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with me?

* * *

Sasuke, just about to run after them, saw Sakura quickly come into view. She had an urgency on her face, one he had not seen since the massacre, and knew there was no point in delaying their fleet with questions so he turned to run alongside them. Rather surprised and quite relieved Sakura quickly whispered:

"Thank you, I'll explain when we get to Iruka."

Thankfully the clones distracted, the now raging ANBU behind them and all three had enough of a head start to arrive in the village before he caught up with them. Unfortunately, with the Hokage out, that left Iruka Sensei as the closest ninja to ask for help. When they passed through the gates Naruto headed straight onwards as Sasuke and Sakura headed for the school. There they found Iruka getting ready to leave. He could feel the intense urgency Sasuke felt and turn to them with a great amount of worry. "What happened to you two?" he asked as his brow scrunched with genuine concern.

Completely out of breath and falling to their knees, Sasuke, who ran the shortest distance, stammered "Ther-ere there's somethi-ing in the woods!" Iruka's eyes widened and demanded, "Was it an ANBU?" Sakura looked up in utter shock and jumped to her feet grabbing his vest shaking him as she shouted "You knew this was a problem and you didn't even try to stop it before someone got killed! What is wrong with you!" Shocked himself Iruka looked down and rested his hand on her shoulder sorrowfully replying "My friend told me one of Danzō Shimura's men was acting weird and uncommonly violent, especially considering he wanted to be a Root Nin. But there was no sign he would try to kill someone! Don't worry I'll inform him of the escalation immediately. Did he hurt either of you?" They shook their heads and satisfied, with a flash he was gone. Sasuke look up at Sakura and asked, still out of breath "What happened back there?"

Sakura still shaken by the shock and trying to repress her anger, looked at Sasuke, who so easily understood the danger they faced. She knew he deserved the whole story, for what he did, and so, she told him about the frequent attacks Naruto would encounter and that there was a limit to their cruelty.

"When I got to Naruto she was torn to pieces, even with her transformation justs on, I had been training to see through it and saw her arm, shoulder, leg, and most importantly how much energy she had lost. She used a lot of energy already and was so weak I didn't even have to try to see through her justs." Sasuke could hardly believe his ears, he knew about pain, but to go through that was beyond him. Then Sakura looked him in the eyes and demanded with unfathomable sternness

"You must not let her know you know, she will worry far too much about you and what dangers, knowing her secret might hold for you. Also, if you can, do everything to encourage her to fight back! She never throws a single punch, kick, or even kuni. I'll bet, sometimes she doesn't even run away from fights, and just lets them beat her up so they'll quiet their temper on her and not someone else." This was too much, 'she's a girl that get beaten up by adults and is a pacifist! None of it makes any sense! I wouldn't have ever guessed. He… she always looked so cheerful even when she failed a test! She acted like she hadn't a care in the world! All those da's I wished she knew the hardships of the world that she would understand life was not just some big joke or prank… what a fool! She knew it all TOO well!' Sasuke slouched and bowed his head in remorse. He now understood why Sakura cared about her so much, and why she couldn't show her friendship either. Now he was determined to not only keep her secret but to keep her safe. The only problem was how.

* * *

I could use some advice about what's good and what's bad. This is my first time so it may take a while for me to post chapters, plus I'm in a crazy school that gives TONs of HW so that's a factor too. Also, if I get a few reminders to post that might speed things along. Thank you very much!


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